NEWS: NIGERIA - Ijaw elders to Tompolo, Kuku: Honour EFCC invitations

IZON Okosu-Otu, the umbrella body of Ijaw Council of Elders, at the weekend urged kinsmen to honour invitations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

In a statement issued by Mr. Bare Etolor, Chairman of the Delta State chapter, the elders asked them to “go and prove their innocence.”

The elders particularly called on former militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo (aka Tompolo); Kingsley Kuku, former Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs and the Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme and the ailing Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Petroleum Minister, who it claimed, had been recently invited by the EFCC and the Department of State Services (DSS) over alleged corruption.

The elders are worried over series of invitations to their kinsmen, who they said, “served the country meritoriously in their various positions in Jonathan’s government.

“There is no gainsaying that every father must show concern about whatever happens to his child.” The Ijaw nation is very worried about the recent invitations of some of our sons and daughters who have served this nation meritoriously

“Their invitations, no doubt, are in furtherance of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government’s fight against corruption. Our sons and daughters, we believe, are not the only invitees by these anti-corruption agencies.

“It’s on this note that we call on any of our sons and daughters invited to graciously honour such invitations and prove his or her innocence. No one is above the laws of this country. Nobody, no matter how highly placed, is bigger than the government. The law should be allowed to take its course,” the statement noted.

The elders also appealed to the investigative agencies to respect the fundamental human rights of the invitees, adding that civility “will save us from plunging this country into unnecessary ethnic uprising heating up in the already tensed ethnic fears in the country”.

They called on the factions in Ijaw nation to close ranks.

The EFCC had initially invited Tompolo, giving him a seven-day ultimatum to appear before it or risk being declared wanted. The seven days has lapsed, but the EFCC said it was employing other means within the law to bring Tompolo to book.

The agency has also invited Kuku, who claimed to be undergoing knee treatment abroad. Kuku later raised alarm over an alleged plot to frame him up for terrorism.

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